The long-postponed meeting between President Gotabya Rajapaksa and the representatives of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) took place on Friday.
The meeting started at 10.30 am at the Presidential Secretariat and lasted till 1.30 pm.
At the leadership of R. Sampanthan, a senior leader of the TNA, Senathirasa, the leader of the ITAK, and other MPs including MA Sumanthiran, R. Shanakiyan, Charles Nirmalanathan, Shritharan Sivagnanam and Kalaiyarasan were also present at the meeting.
According to reports, Rajapaksa agreed to release political prisoners and make efforts to engaging with the Tamil diaspora.
The government is also, according to Rajapaksa, working on amendments to the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and resolving the concerns of the families of forcibly disappeared persons.
Speaking in a television interview after the meeting, Sumanthiran said that Rajapaksa assured the TNA that his government will treat everyone equally.
“Today he told us that, although he has said that he was elected by the Sinhala people, mostly, he has always said that he is the President of everyone. He will treat everyone equally.”
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his conduct during the end of the armed conflict in 2009 when he served as Defence Secretary.
Rajapaksa has also repeatedly asserted the primacy accorded to Sinhala-Buddhism in his rule. “I am a Sinhala Buddhist leader and I will never hesitate to state so,” he said in his independence day speech in 2021.
